Intonation

MissYouAllDay

What is guitar intonation? Can someone explain this to me?

Thanks

djyman15

Its your guitars ability to hit every note correctly as it goes down the neck, at least to my knowledge thats it

Telemaster

ah yes, the mighty intonation. let me explain this:

Okay, so guitars have scaled necks. Not all guitars are the same length, so in order to compensate for this, guitars have intonations. you can adjust the length of the string independently of the length of the guitar. You want it so that the harmonic on the 12th fret is the same frequency as that of the string. E string -- E harmonic. If your guitar is improperty intonated, the farther from the headstock you go, the more off the notes will be

FinsburyParkCarrots

I'll give you an example. Say, one of my guitars is usually strung in standard tuning. If I drop it down to DADGAD for a couple of days, but then try to put it back in normal tuning, I might notice the following problem.
With the guitar back in EADGBE, I should expect each string, when played on the twelfth fret, to be exactly an octave higher than when played openly. However, if the guitar's intonation is faulty, I might find that when played at the twelfth fret, the thin E string is making an Eb or, even worse, a D note, even though the open string is in tune.
To fix the intonation of the guitar, one usually needs to take the strings off completely, reset the bridge of the guitar if necessary and put new strings on.

puremagic

Or if your like the 60% of these guitar players, you have a variety of guitars set to specific styles of playing so you can just switch instruments.

FinsburyParkCarrots

Originally posted by puremagic
Or if your like the 60% of these guitar players, you have a variety of guitars set to specific styles of playing so you can just switch instruments.

Indeed! That's the ideal! Racks and racks of guitars onstage, by the backline! Rock on, The Darkness!!!!